Impasse

An unspoken spark of attraction is ignited inside both a man and woman in a train car but can love overcome the human condition of intolerance?

What starts out as a simple man-meets-woman romance, in a sleepy train car, we later realize there’s something more to this encounter – a dimension of one of the characters we don’t readily see.

As both the man and the woman sit across from each other and dart their eyes to steal a glance of the other, an almost tennis-match-like volley of shots stitch sequentially, leaving us to wonder if their eyes ever met. Until they finally do. And when they do, a gift from the woman to the man inadvertently drops on his head.

The awkwardness of head positions, scanning of the eyes and inward smiles tell the story of these two during this segment of the man’s train ride, but it’s the seemingly innocuous gift from the woman to the man that leaves the rest of the story wide open. When he peers out the window to see his recently departed booth mate, does he hesitate due to the typical fears of “breaking the ice” with a woman that he finds attractive or is it something else?

Without words, we’re left to consider whether love and attraction can break through the impasse of human intolerance.